Since You've Been Gone
by aorangeinboston
Summary: Post Season 5: What happens to the Jeffersonian after the team leaves? We'll see Cam's new team, Sweets new crush and what happens when the old team comes back. Will later develop into Sweets/OC romance. Hope you like, read and review. DISCONTINUED.
1. Chapter 1

_so for the upcoming oc's ill post who and what they are with short background on my profile. like always read and review, and do it this time. will be getting onto Sweets/OC relationship later on. Bonn Apatite!_

_~meg  
_

* * *

"It seems so strange walking around here again." A heavily pregnant woman stated, she stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and then started walking again.

"I know. No i.d.'s, we aren't special anymore." her companion waited for her to finish her stretch.

"I'm not special." The woman repeated, giving him a look that combined with her hormones put fear into him.

"No I just mean here, we can't touch evidence or anything." the shorter man babbled.

"Sure buddy." Like always the automatic doors parted when they sensed the two approaching.

"Well the doors are the same." He noted; the Medico Legal Lab of the Jeffersonian was relatively the same since they had left thirteen months ago. It was cleaner than a very nice and expensive hospital and seem well equipped with interns and doctors clad in their work attire of a lab coat. Around lights were on in offices with people walking in and out of them. The man picked up on that most of them were on.

"Who's in my office?" The man was standing on tip toe to see over the raised platform were most of the interns were milling around.

"Let me do it." Walking with her hands on her back she shuffled to the side of the platform closest to the said room were a young woman was working. The man rushed to her side. "Who is it?"

"I don't know. She's probably an intern or something."

"She's a little bit better than an intern, she actually has had her doctorate for quite some time now." came a voice from behind them, whoever it was their accent was remarkably similar to that of Nigel Murray's. Turning they saw a tall balding middle aged man; Clad in a plaid bow tie and a lab coat, revealing him to be a Dr. Ethan Williams.

"Yea..." The man said running his hand through his hair.

"Hi." The woman waved slightly and gave a large smile.

"I'm Dr. Williams and you two are?" he trailed off.

"Well I'm Dr. Hodgins."

"I'm Angelea, we used to work here."

"Yes, I've heard much about you two from Dr. Saroyan and Dr. Sweets."

"Oh, and where's Cam now?" the man asked, peering through the group of people on the platform he couldn't see her.

"Dr. Saroyan should be in her office."

"Thank you." they said in unison, something that had started to develop since they found out about the baby.

"Must be working in paleontology or something." Angelea whispered down to Jack.

"Yea. Well he's a long way from home then." he replied watching as the formal Dr. Walker walked back towards the platform, swiped his i.d. badge and pulled on a pair of gloves, all in a proper fashion.

"Lets go find Cam, my feet hurt." Again she readjusted herself and

"I'm not rubbing this time." Jack had to lay the law down before the question was posed.

"I only made you do that once in public."

"At a cafe in New York City." He rebutted.

"Leave me alone I'm pregnant." she smacked Jack's arm and while he rubbed the throbbing appendage she waddled ahead off to her former boss.

* * *

"Knock knock!" Came the oh so memorable voice of Angelea. Cam at the moment was talking to the from young women earlier, who was leaning agaisnt a chair arm.

"Angelea!" Cam looked up and the smile that had already been present on her features brightened.

"Hey I'm back!" she stood with her arms outstretched waiting for the hug.

"Oh my god!" it was obvious that when the two would come back from France that they would be having a little Hodgins coming back with them.

"I know!"

"You're huge!"

"Leave me alone," she

"It's a good huge."

"I manage to pull the look off." Angelea laughed as Cam reached over her stomach to hug her shoulders.

"Is Hodgins here with you?"

"Yea he was just freaking out that someone took his office." Angelea broke the hug to support her back again and rolled her eyes.

"Oh. Yea, anyways, Angelea this is the medico legal labs new Toxicologist and Entomologist, Dr. Evie Collins. Evie this was our Facial Re-constructionist and Computer Tech Angelea Montenegro."

"It's nice to meet you." Said Evie shyly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before taking Angelea's hand. "You actually look really good. My mom always got a lot bigger when she was pregnant."

"Oh, I guess that's good. I just feel like I have to check behind me before I turn in case I hit something."

Both Cam and Evie laughed, "I should get going I have to go talk to DEW before he leaves."

Cam coughed and stared at the young women.

"Um I mean Dr. Walker before he leaves." Evie shuffled out to the door where she said a quiet bye and closed the door.

"Is that the english dude?" Angelea asked when she took a chair in front of Cam's desk.

"Yea. We needed a replacement for Brennnan."

"What do you mean replacement?"

"Well when you guys all left it wasn't like all the murders were going to stop to. I needed to get another team. Dr. Walker came out of retirement when one of his friends said that I was looking for an forensic anthropologist. Evie was referred to me by the FBI Labs in Boston."

"Did you get someone to replace me?" Angelea looked as though she was a bit upset by the news.

"No, I send them out to a specialist at the University of Pennsylvania."

"Oh, so what happens when Jack and Brenn want there jobs back."

"That part I'm still working on." To avoid eye contact Cam started to shuffle papers into folders, no matter which one they were actually supposed to be in.

"Well Brenn was going away on research, it wasn't like she quit, she went away to make a discovery which is her actual job in the first place working at a museum."

"Yes. But we needed someone to solve the murders that the FBI wanted us to solve."

"Who took Booth's job? If its the Perotta agent I swear..."

"No, Perotta doesn't work with us."

"Thank god," Angelea sighed, "Who's the agent then?"

* * *

Jack was a little more than mad that Cam had given someone his office. Most of things were the same besides for the major lack of bugs. Where were they? In the medico legal lab it was little more than important to have bugs to use for evidence.

"Ummmmm." a females voice came from behind, and how it sounded young meant that it probably was an intern.

"It's okay. I used to work in here and I haven't touched anything." Jack explained while turning away from the door.

"No, I kind of just have to get in there and get my lab coat, Dr. Bancroft I heard is coming around and I don't want to get fired." Evie explained, she looked down at her star tight covered legs and bright maroon skirt.

"Oh, is this your office?" Jack was a bit surprised that someone this young had gotten _his_ office, it was _his_ office when he left.

"Yea." To Evie it seemed a bit obvious, if her lab coat was in here that it must be her office.

"Where are the bugs? There are absolutely none in here." He sounded a bit disgusted by the fact, actually Jack was very disgusted by that fact, they were _his _bugs in _his_ office.

"Excuse me?"

"The bugs." Now she got it.

"Oh, since I've been here they've been in the room next door, Cam said that this was supposed to be an office not a bug zoo. I actually wouldn..."

"Are you an Entomologist?"

"Yea."

"Then you need bugs in your office." It was as plain as that.

"I know."

"Oh."

"But I need room for the toxicology machines, because I'm a toxicologist as well, which takes more priority because you know they both include chemically stuff."

"Oh, yea." he now looked at the diagnostic machines that covered mostly every surface.

"True dat." she turned and carried on walking to the swirly chair which had her lab coat and bag, with most of its contents spewn across the desk's surface.

"So you are?"

"Dr. Evie Collins."

"Do you know the Brit out there?"

"Which one? One of the three interns we have or the anthropologist?"

"They got a new anthropologist?" Cam had replaced Brennan?

"Yea, well when I got here he wasn't new, DEWs actually kind of old. He was in retirement before but came out of it to take this deal." Evie explained as she shrugged her lab coat onto her shoulders, took her hair out from underneath and adjusted the turquoise beanie that was on her head.

"DEW?"

"That's what I call him. Use D, from Doctor and then his initials, E and W and you get DEW. Like do the dew?"

Jack laughed. He loved nicknames.

"So who are you? If you used to work here? And with the big temper tantrum over the lack of bugs in here I'm guessing you used to work with them."

"I'm Dr. Jack Hodgins. Entomologist, but I like to be formally called the Bug and Slime guy." she laughed as she walked back to the front of the room.

"Oh so you're a geologist to?"

"I can be, and I like ..." _See the Light _by Green Day started playing somewhere and Evie's bent down to struggle with taking her Samsung Flight out of her Doc Marten boot.

"Excuse me for a moment."

"Yea Skywalker?"

With the use of the movie character's name Jack's eyebrows shot sky high.

"I'm going to have to walk to him." she whined to the phone. "Fine." she started to walk away and then looked behind her, she bent her finger and brought a quick 'come here' finger movement before she unclipped her id badge. Hesitantly Jack followed looking around wondering if he would get attacked for doing so, when Evie scanned her badge she whispered to the guard who was watching Jack, "He's with me."

"I'm with her." he said while pointing to Evie while he passed the guard.

"Doc." she called out. Most of the interns turned to look at her. Dr. Williams kept his head down. "You guys aren't one yet." she returned the phone to her ear, "Yea they did it again. Doc Williams."

"You forgot the 'tor' at the end of Doctor again Dr. Collins." came the lightly peeved voice of Dr. Williams who was bent over a set of bones.

"And you forgot to call me Evie. Anyways Skywalker would like to speak with you," she looked down at his gloved hands that were delicately wiping over the newly arrived and extremely grimy bones of their newest victim, "And your gloves are kind of gross so I'll save you and my phone the trouble and put it on speaker." she pressed a button and 'Skywalker' or who Dr. Williams liked to call Agent Walker could be heard.

"Do you guys know how Miss Louise Blunt died yet?"

"No, I just got the bones only a few hours ago."

"But the buggies have told me that she has been deceased for a little under three weeks."

"Did you use the beetles?" Jack asked, Dr. Williams looked up with the new voice.

"Yea." Evie nodded enthusiastically.

"Dr. Hodgins I see you've meet Dr. Collins."

"Yes. Fellow Entomologist and bug lover." the joke made two or maybe three of the interns crowded around Dr. Williams stifle a laugh.

"Bug friend. I prefer to get down with someone in my own species." she said bluntly with a few of the male interns cheeks turning a bit rosy.

"Who's Hodgins?" Skywalker's voice asked.

"Oh, someone who used to work with Cam."

"Well I should meet this Hodgins." Skywalker said as he flipped a switch in his car and the signal turn sound started to go off in the background.

"You must be Skywalker." Jack said to the phone.

"Or Agent Walker which is what we professionals call him by." Dr. Williams piped in.

"Have you even seen the movies?" Evie turned to him, he was kind of, killing the fun mood.

"Yes. When they first came out. Now can we please be professional and get back to work."

"Very Clark." Jack remembered the behavior.

"Excuse me?" Dr. Williams asked a bit offended.

"Nothing inside joke with some old colleagues."

"Dr. Collins could we please not have Doctors like Dr. Hodgins who lack a Jeffersonian id on the evidence platform?"

"Of course we can Doc." Evie said in an english accent matched with a smart ass grin, which Dr. Williams returned with most of the same enthusiasm.

"Evie and Williams could we not but each others heads off in front of the interns. I'm sure most of them think that being anthropologists in the big, bad, world renowned Jeffersonian Institute that they'll have nice co-workers now."

"Oh, you make it sound so classy Skywalker."

"Well I gotta go now kiddies and Hodgins, but I'll swing by when I get some evidence."

"Bye."

"Yes Dr. Collins lets work on getting Agent Walker some evidence."

"I've got the sisterhood working on it, I think that you should have your interns working on your side of the evidence as well."

"Be nice you two." Cam called from the side of the platform on the lower floor a smile on her face despite her scientist fighting.

"Yes Mom." Evie called as she stepped off of the platform with a smile.

"Yes Dr. Saroyan." said Dr. Williams in a business-like tone, which Jack guessed he talked in alot.

"Cam oh Cam." he had to wait for the guard to swipe his id card.

"Hodgins. How are you?" he skipped down the stairs slightly.

"Pregnant." Hodgins rolled his eyes as he walked towards his wife and maybe boss.

"Well this part of the relationship is." Angelea said as the two released from the slightly more manly version of Cam and Angelea's earlier hug.

"So this is the crew eh?" he asked as he joined Cam and Angelea who were walking to the doors.

"Yea. This is it. And Pete. Well he likes it when Evie calls him Petey."

"Petey?" Jack asked, the name fit a dog, probably a schnauzer of some sort.

"High School Intern for the summer, he's on vacation right now. Usually I have him watch the lab when I'm gone."

"Why?" Angelea started to rub her stomach.

"You did see those two on the evidence platform?"

"Oh." The couple said in unison as the exited down the hall.

* * *

_tell me what you think!_


	2. Chapter 2

_review, was away on vaca got to write lots of stuff, read, enjoy and most of all review. tell me what you think of the new character. and she is the oc in the oc/sweets._

_~gnomexmeg  
_

* * *

Luke wasn't exactly psyched to be visiting Dr. Sweets, even though he was an agent he enjoyed chatting with the specialist at the Jeffersonian, but the young psychologist was different. But he needed the preliminary profile of the killer based on the crime scene; which had made him almost lose his lunch, breakfast and dinner from the previous night. Though he had manned it out and dealt with it as much as his co-worker had, the young doctor Evie Collins and only expressed his emotions with an 'Ew."

The Law and Order Dun Dun's filled his car he pulled the phone out of the cup holder and flipped it open to his ear.

"Walker."

"Agent Walker I'm not going to be at my office today, I'm meeting some friends who are with Cam at a restaurant and after I'll most likely head to the Jeffersonian to talk to Doctor's Collins and Williams."

"Sweets, I'm driving over to your office now." Why would God put him in this situation?

"Oh. Well I'm actually at the restaurant now, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to talk for long."

"Sweets, have you looked at the crime scene pictures?" he had emailed them, faxed them and sent a messenger with them.

"Yes." now Luke could hear the hum of people's conversations in the background.

"And?" why weren't any of his evidence people giving him something to go on?

"This guy has a lot of free time on his hands. I have to go. I'll talk to you later. Hi Angelea. Wow!"

"No." slamming his hands on the steering wheel Luke attracted the attention of his fellow drivers in the nearby cars and trucks. He gave a smile and wave to a nearby woman and then realized that the light had turned green. Sweets would show up at the lab and most likely hang around the lab, earning him glares and smacks from Evie; who was holding a strong grudge agaisnt him. There had been more than a few occasions that Luke led Evie back to her office and told her that beating the poor psychologist wouldn't make him go away. Though sometimes he just liked to watch the two tango. Sweets though was beyond fairly confused about Evie's behavior, which surprised Luke because the man being a psychologist should understand why she was angry at him. Even DEW had agreed that Evie's anger at him was justified.

Mr. Doctor Lance Sweets had gotten off on the very wrong foot of Evie. On one of the first cases they had worked Evie's younger sister Cora, had stayed and visited with Evie most of the times that Sweets was there and the times that Sweets accompanied Luke and Evie to a local Deli. Cora and Sweets had actually gotten along the first few times, Sweets later on after their second lunch revealed to Luke that he had a small crush on the twenty-something, or in his words "I kind of like her, she's really pretty, oh and she laughs at my jokes." Though he had started to pick up on the behavior, his first bad move wast that he had questioned Evie about Cora hanging around and the apparent lack of life in her , which Evie then had started for to gradually stop attending lunch with Luke, feeling insulted by Sweets. But the straw that broke the camels back was suggesting that the young woman was depressed, which earned him a smack while she walked away and her long held grudge. And now six months later like he had for the past four cases Lance Sweets would more than likely bug Luke about Evie's attitude.

* * *

"Sweets I think your voice has gotten deeper!" Angelea exclaimed as she pushed back from the hug but still held onto his shoulders, examining him. "Have you met anyone yet?"

"What?" Lance had of course meet people, wait oh, now he got it. "Well,"

"Well what?"

"Sweets are you seeing someone." Cam just needed a straight forward answer, for the most part she really didn't talk to Sweets about stuff like that. Usually he was asking why Evie would hit him.

"No. It's hard to explain."

"He has a crush. Man code for crush is either hard to explain or it's complicated." He looked over for Lance's facial response to see if he was right.

"How do you know?" Cam had to save him from the couple.

"I'm a guy." It was a human with a deep voice and a lack of a woman's chest saying something about Man code, right?

"Anyone I know?" Angelea jumped into her old role as a love life guru as she started to munch on some fries.

"You've been away for a year." Cam looked at her, she had been living in Paris for a year.

"Well, anyone that Cam knows."

"Umm.."

"Let me guess that means yes in man code?" Angelea looked at her husband, it seemed for the most part their relationship hadn't changed.

"Well aren't you an english-to-man code walking dictionary." Jack drawled.

"So how have you two been?" Lance changed the subject before his love life would be further dissected.

"Pregnant." Jack nodded to Lance.

"I hope you know its my role as the carrier of the child to say that I'm pregnant."

"Find any cool bugs in France?"

"No, but down the street from were we lived they had a cafe with probably the best coffee you will ever taste."

"Jaq's croissants were pretty good too."

"I lived off of those things, of course they would be good." Angelea rebutted

"Well you are pregnant." Sweets stated. Pregnant women did some odd things.

"And?" Angelea extended out.

"Being pregnant you sometimes crave funny things." Sweets explained.

"Well Jack said that they were good to."

"And Hodgins also said that he was pregnant." Lance loved getting revenge.

"I meant as a couple." Jack exclaimed.

"So have you talked to Brennan yet?" Cam asked, she really didn't want the Hodgins tag teaming on Sweets.

"Well she gets back a day before her and Booth are going to meet." Lance rolled his eyes at this.

"What Sweets?" Jack was the one to notice this.

"It's nothing. Have you heard from Booth?" Angelea stated a little tired of Sweets going on about the so should be relationship of the century.

"Yea. He gets home a week before but he's mostly going to spend time with Parker." Cam answered after she swallowed part of her drink.

"That's good, because I need both of them hear when this kid comes out."

"Why?" Temperance didn't seem like 'the hold your hand in labor' type of gal pal.

"For the moral support," Lance almost believed him, but the look in his eyes gave the answer before he spoke, "Godparents."

"Oh." he nodded

"So are we going to order?" Cam asked leaning over the table.

"Yea. Of course, we're pregnant."

"Oh gosh, he is not going to let up on this until the day I'm in labor." Angelea groaned as she finished picking what she wanted to eat.

"Who's the waitress?" Lance asked looking at a few familiar faces.

"Cora." Cam answered as she looked around the small diner for the bright haired girl

"Oh."

"I'll go find her, be right back." Angelea and Jack watched as she left the table and walked over to the counter.

"Oh, what?" Jack asked.

"Nothing." Gosh, why the hell would she leave him alone with these two.

"I think I got a grip on the guy lingo here that this 'oh', is that you like this Cora girl."

Lance was silent, he wasn't going to give anything away.

"And how do you know Ms. Cora?" Angelea leaned in on her elbows, putting her chin in her hands.

"Well, she's Dr. Collins little sister, she got a job here after we ate here once."

"We." Jack stressed.

"Not just us two, Dr. Collins, Cora and Agent Luke."

"Double date."

"Well if it was, I totally screwed it up."

"What did you do?"

"It's nothing."

"No, you admitted to screwing it up, now say what you did." the tone Angelea used was demanding.

"She's got alot of hormones swimming around in there, I would not tempt fate." Jack said.

"I told her sister that I thought that she was a little bit depressed."

"And you like her."

"Yes." After a moment of Jack's and Angelea's smiles growing, Lance realized what he had just said. "Shit."

"That's why Evie doesn't like you?" Cam had her arms crossed standing over Lance.

"Shit, again. And yes." he squeezed his eyes and waited for the storm to come.

"Gosh, you're almost as bad as Zach, you don't tell people that." Angelea leaned across the table and hit him on the arm, which actually kind of hurt.

"I was being a pyschologist."

"Maybe she's just really shy." Cam said, still in a percusating tone.

"It's what I noticed okay." To change the topic and get out from the beating he changed the topic. "So what's everyone getting?"

"I think I'm supposed to ask that question." that voice that he remembered hearing two months ago was still perfect in his ears.

* * *

The group turned to look at the said crush who was almost 5'8'' even though she was wearing a pair of sneakers. Her hair which Angelea noticed right away was what seemed to be her natural brunette and underneath a bright purple, which was a beautiful contrast to her pale freckle dotted skin. With the examining being done by the two new comers Cora felt a pang of anxiety float up inside of her, blue eyes expressing the emotion perfectly. To not seem anymore creepy Angelea stopped her study of Cora and smiled brightly at her.

* * *

"Umm, I'm Cora,"

"We know." Jack said, his face held a small smile, but his eyes showed that he could be the literal definition of ROTFL, as he glance back and forth between Cora and Lance.

"Okay. I'll start with drinks, umm Dr. S what can I get you?"

"The usual coffee would be great."

"Cool," Cora dragged out as she wrote done on her pad of paper, "Curly?"

After a moment Jack recognized who she was adressing, "Oh me, you and your sister like the nicknames."

"Guess you've been to the Jeffersonian with Dr. S. what do you want?" she smiled, looking down at the pad of paper.

"Rootbeer."

"Great and you..." she pointed her pen to Angelea.

"Angelea."

"Angelea you'll be having?"

"Seltzer, plain."

"Great. Dr. Sweets." she said, her eyes looking down.

"Lance." her eyes glanced up at him for probably less than a second, before her cheeks grew a light shade of pink.

"What would you like?"

"Coke."

"Great. I'll get these and then let you guys finish up your orders and I'll be right back."

After Cora had left for over a minute Angelea turned to look at Lance with an arched eyebrow. "Lance?"

"I... I don't know..." His voice cracked a bit.

"Guess he isn't growing up after all." Jack laughed as he leaned over to ruffle Lance's hair.

* * *

The interns had been dismissed, most of the ancient artifacts specialist had left for the night at five o'clock sharp and the security at the platform had been dropped for the night at the lack of potential thieves. Though a few souls diligently remained, or were more digentially lounging. Luke had been waiting for Sweets to show up for a good four hours and now he was so bored that he had just memorized the facts of the case in his head. A group of campers who were hiking in the woods had found the decomposed body of Louise Blunt, a secretary and her drivers license photo revealed a very pretty one at that. Though the way they found her was more of the disturbing part, she was tied to a large tree trunk, a rope at her hips and a rope at shoulders,though to the various creatures in the woods her neck had been eaten away and her head had dropped face forward to the forest floor. And without a psychologist's view on a suspect Luke was mostly stuck at the Jeffersonian waiting for a maricle clue.

A pair of heels could be heard on the metal stair case leading to the lounge, and Luke feeling that he needed to look as though he was doing something sat up and attempted to look awake.

"Do you know how sad my life is?" Evie stated blankly as she plopped down onto a couch across from Luke.

"No." he blinked.

"I'm actually happy that I'm here, working, that we have a case, that there's somebody dead enough to be on our table." She lifted her eyes from the coffee table.

"Aren't all dead people the same."

"Well then Mr. Technical pants, decomposed and gross enough to be on our table." Evie like always dramatically rolled her eyes.

"Thank you for the clarification."

"No probs Skywalker."

"Don't you have family to be going home to?"

"Yes, but she's never there anymore, Cor is always working."

"Trouble in paradise?"

"Why would living with my sister be paradise?"

"Six months ago when you were defending her from Sweets..."

"She's just tired from working all the time. But uggghhh, I think he is right."

"Sweets was right about your sister." he acted as if he was completely shocked by her saying Sweets was right.

"You've gone to the dark side Skywalker. And yes, the oh great sweets was right about my little sister!"

"When did we ever talk about him being great?"

"Grrrrrr. I'm going home." teetering herself up into a sitting position and then pushed her feet onto the floor.

"Dr. Collins I wouldn't be so urgent to leave right away." the oh so ever professional Dr. Wiliams called loudly from the platform area.

"Evie. And why?" she yelled back.

"I think I've made yours and Agent Walker's nights." Both her and Walker rushed to the railings and leant over to see Dr. Williams holding up a bone in his gloved hands.

"Yes!" Evie yelled and before Luke could turn to even start collecting his paperwork Evie was half way down the staircase jumping on both feet ready to work the case.

"I'll call Cam and Sweets." she stopped at the bottom step and turned to look up at Luke.

"If you're saying that to rub Sweets being right into my face I swear to god I will make your life hell."

"Do I seem really that stupid."

"Smidgen."

"Thanks."

* * *

"Sweets we got to go." Cam had avoided the call for as long as she could though after the third one, she gave an excuse me four minutes ago and then

"They've got something?"

"Yup. It was nice to see you guys, visit a lot. And we'll all get together when Booth and Brennan get back."

"Does this include me?"

"Of course Sweets."

"It was nice seeing you guys."

"Bye."

"Bye." Angelea called, after waiting for the two to leave, Cam in the lead, Angelea turned to Jack, "I want croissants now."


	3. Chapter 3

_sorry its been awhile, loads of crap going on, and fyi this is when the sweets/oc starts so enjoy and comment :) hope i keep to my standards for one of my first lovely commenters :)_

_~meg  
_

* * *

"So what do we got." Cam had seemed to take only three minutes to make the usual twelve minute walk in heels from the Jeffersonian to the diner. In a jog tempo Sweets came up behind her a minute later, a little bit out of breath.

"Well, we might have a location of where our victims were before they were at the crime scene."

"And that would be were Dr. Williams?"

"Evie is running it." Luke interrupted.

"But I suspect maybe a quarry or a place where there area a lot of rocks."

"Mostly we have everywhere in the United Space as an area of interest."

"No, its better its a specific type of stone only found in areas of where Dr. Collins?"

"Evie and its the Patuxent River stone, which is found only in the..."

"I'm guessing the Patuxent River."

"Oh god he's here." Evie called obnoxiously, hearing Sweets voice from the main part of the lab.

"Why does she do that?"

"It was explained to you earlier, now ok good work, keep going on it." Cam stated, tired of the question of the year for Sweets.

"You. Here now." Luke was standing outside of Evie's office holding pictures of the crime scene in one hand and the other was pointing down to a tile next to him.

"The smart ass comment of 'he has a lot of time'," Luke mimicked Lance's not as deep voice, "Does not help the case. So now your going to sit that smart ass down and give me some answers." putting an overly firm hand on his shoulder he shoved him over to a stool that was in a corner of the office.

"Okay."

"Good, Evie watch him I have to go and do some FBI stuff." he scooted out of the room.

Evie gave him a dark glance before returning to looking under her microscope. Lance knew he wasn't going to get a warm welcome, so feeling that he should just do what he was told so he go home he sat on the stool and began looking over the spread out pictures. It was a bit obvious that the victim hadn't been tortured, earlier information revealed that they had been given an overdose of a sedative. A more peaceful way to go then being strangled or drowned, showing that the murderer was acting more out of mercy... angel of mercy could have worked, this patient, maybe an outpatient of some sorts, was targeted by a nurse or some other medical profession.

"Sweets."

Was that Evie saying his name? He turned to see Evie bent over still looking into the

"Sweets."

"Oh, sorry. Just you haven't talked to me, well nicely in a while. Sorry, yes?"

"You were right." she adjusted one of the knobs on the microscope.

"Right about what?"

"My sister." she said plainly still looking done.

"What did I say?" he gave her a look mirroring his thoughts, a bit confused.

"She's different."

"Different how?"

"She's off, doesn't do much with her life. And she's not the Cora I used to know."

"Cora seemed fine today." he said, turning back to the pictures in front of him, this is the somewhat normal, casual conversation co-workers have. Maybe things with Evie would get better.

"What?" she turned quickly to look at Lance who had jumped back a bit at her sudden movement.

"I had her as a waitress today."

"Just you?"

"No me, Cam, Angelea and Hodgins."

"The people I met earlier today?"

"If you met a pregnant woman and a short curly haired guy, yea you met them."

"What did you say to her."

"Nothing, I said she could call me Lance."

"Why!" A security guard doing some rounds looked into the room after hearing the small shout. Lance and Evie turned and looked at him, Evie charming him with a small hand wave.

"I've known her for several months outside of a professional relationship."

"Well don't even get the idea."

"What idea."

"You know what I mean."

"No I don't." he was so confused why everyone else understood why Evie was mad at him and he wasn't, and especially that he didn't know what she meant by 'don't get the idea'.

"I just told you that you were right about her being slightly messed up. She hasn't been herself and you noticed it and then you just practically start humping her leg in front of three people. Our boss in particular."

"I wasn't humping her leg I told her casually that she could call me Lance." his voice went a little bit higher at what he was being persecuted with. What bothered him the most about it was saying he was humping her leg. Who even used that outside of saying something about a hyper-active small dog.

"Really, Sweets I left you alone for five minutes and you had to pick a fight." Luke was standing at the doorway, when the hell did get there, wasn't he supposed to be doing 'FBI things'.

"I didn't start this." he pointed his finger at a section of air in between, as if it actually held remnants of the argument.

"Well why did she accuse you of humping someone's leg?"

"Because she misinterpreted something."

"I didn't, you were practically doing that through words."

"What did he say?"

"That my innocent, 21 year old, baby sister could call him Lance because they've known each other for several months and they aren't in a professional relationship."

"Oh." The anger at Lance for pissing off Evie had left Luke's face as he realized the woman's over reaction. "Evie, that really wasn't him humping your sisters leg."

"He goes from one minute saying she's depressed and suicidal to flirting with her."

"He was telling her to call him Lance, they're practically the same age."

"Ugh! Go." She flicked her wrist at the two men, signaling for them to leave.

After getting twenty or so paces away from the doorway Luke asked the all important question, "So what do you got?" Lance sent him a angry glance but realized he could leave after giving the primary profile of the killer.

"With the traces of sedative in the victim, you could be looking for an angel of mercy."

"The killer nurses."

"Yea, they think that what they're doing is putting the victim out of misery. But with this happening outside of a hospital or other care facility, they could work with outpatients with degenerative diseases or terminal outpatients."

"I'll look for missing outpatients. Thanks, Sweets." Luke turned to leave to go back to the lounge.

"Yup." Lance turned to leave to go to the door.

"Wait, just a question. You didn't like come on so strong to Cora that it could be metaphorically thought as humping her leg?"

"No I didn't, ask Cam."

"Sure. Bye." Lance rolled his eyes, he was now more than a bit pissed off, and as Cam noted as he exited the lab, he was in more of a stalk motion.

* * *

He missed the old team, that somewhat accepted him, and enjoyed his company over some of the interns. This group was different. Evie was just angry at him, over something that if she had told him why she was mad, he would have apologized for, not getting a slap at suggesting an idea that came when he was in his pyschologist mode. Luke generally agreed with Evie, but hopefully with Booth returning he could get some normal FBI agent to work with. He couldn't even enter the area of what he saw with Dr. Williams, he was probably even more overly professional and stiff than Clark. But something reminded him of Dr. Brennan in him, some part of her personality that usually showed up when she was working or being inpersonal, that stuck out of him eternally. He just needed the old team back get somewhere normal again.

The couple that had been with Dr. S and Dr. Sweets, wait, Lance, had sat watching her for most of the time that they sat at the table, which was a good two hours. She really didn't appreciate it, yes she had people give her dirty looks if she was late with their food, or if they were the bro's straight out of frat house that wanted to get 'some'. But this was more of analyzing and studying her, which kind of freaked her out. Though they had left a nice tip, twelve bucks, wonder if that was for the service or for being related to her sister Dr. Collins. Sighing she glanced at the time and the almost empty diner, two almost as lifeless people were sitting on the counter, out of her territory; she could leave these two to Helena. She dunked into the back room for the staff and untied her apron and reached into her cubby and grabbed her bag, she was ready to leave and go home.

The door jingled and she thought she had groaned inwardly, but the call of a 'hello' made her drop her keys from the fist her in her purse and shove the bag roughly back into its place. Cora feeling that she needed to look professional and not like she was about to leave to go and do something that involved her life, tried to retie her apron though struggled with the straps.

"Screw it." she threw the stupid thing into her cubby and stomped out of the back room and behind the counter. "What can I get you?"

"Oh, um just some coffee." Her hand was left gripping the handle of the coffee pot as she recognized the voice as Doctor, wait no, Lance's voice and went into a petrified freeze. After a few moments of the pressure and the heat Cora felt a slight burn on the palm of her hand and swore loudly, "Fuck." she put it down slightly but still held the handle in her hand.

"Are you alright?" she could hear the chair that he had apparently sat down in screech on the floor.

"Fine, and sorry." she turned to look at him, raising her hand she managed to knock the coffe pot off of its hot plate. "SHIIIAAT!" the pot had tipped onto the counter allowing the liquid to drain out onto Cora's bare legs and canvas sneakers.

"Cora!" Sweets ignoring the 'No Customers Behind Counter' sign and slid around the counter reaching Cora as she started to heavily lean onto the counter, a look more of surprise than pain plain on her features.

"Ow." she repeated in a high pitch voice, she gave up on leaning on the counter and just fell in an ungraceful manner to the floor. Lance picked up the coffee pot, it sliding over its spilt contents on the counter, and then moved onto the human part of the issue. He ran through the first aid steps for burns in his head. Next was to stop the burning process at the source, and cool the burn wound, looking around he found Cora's abandoned dish towel and grabbed it rushing over to the sink. The two other customers watched in awwed silence at the amount of swearing Cora had just done.

Helena walked out of the kitchen when the heard the yells and watched a young man fall to his knees to aid one of her waitresses.

"Cora?"

"Yea." Her voice wasn't as high pitched anymore but it was more shaky.

"I have to put the towel on it to help it."

"Just do it." feeling the pressure on her legs change she breathed in through her teeth.

"Sorry."

"Shit." she looked over his shoulder.

"What the hell happened?" Helena literall only had been away for five minutes, and this is what Cora had done.

"Nothing Helena, I just... crap." Cora started to explain, though she paused when her skin decided to spazz with pain.

"Who the hell is he?"

"Concerned bystander."

"No customers behind the counter. Cora go home. I'll clean up."

"Helen..."

"Now."

Mumbling as she pulled herself up, ignoring Lance's attempts to giver her his arm, she walked off to grab her bag with a twitch of pain going through her legs.


	4. Chapter 4

_so hey sorry for the really long wait, i actually had this chapter prewritten it was just getting off my butt and loading it up. also i know how i spell _Angela _is a little bit of a fail, my friend angelea spells it like that and i was a little bit of a screw up of me. anyways read on!_  


* * *

"I've already said this. You really don't need to walk me home." She looked behind her and saw Lance only a few paces behind, but he was catching up.

"And I've already said that I really should."

"And I don't need you to." She had been saying for a few five minutes, very plainly.

"How about this, I want to walk you home."

Cora looked to her left at the buildings lining the street, hiding her face which showed a bit of anxiety. She had some other plans for her evening, extremely different plans.

"Cora."

"Yea." She turned her head to look back at Lance.

"Is that okay?"

"Yea." Cora gave a small smile, which ignited one from Lance.

"How far do you live?"

"Only a few blocks, it isn't that bad."

"Good."

She gave him a look, didn't he suggest walking her home.

"No I mean for you, not a long commute." He started to stutter a bit, making her smirk.

"Yea, it's pretty good."

"So besides working what else do you do?"

"TV, reading, stuff like that."

"Sounds fun." He nodded.

"No not really." She gave a short laughed that he smiled at. "So what do you do?"

"Work."

"I know that and that you always sit in my section at the Royal."

"I do?" he never noticed that or well he didn't mean for her to notice that.

"You haven't noticed for the past few months that I've been your waitress like 80% of the time?"

"Kind of."

"You plan it that way."

"Um."

"Yea, you do." She laughed at his embarrassed expression, Lance bringing his hand to rub the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"I didn't say anything."

"From the long pause you took, you said a lot."

"Like what?"

"That you always sit in my section of the Diner on purpose just so you don't have to have Rachel flirt with you." Lance laughed at the image of the 40 something that did shamelessly hit on a many young attractive customers.

"I have some other reasons."

"And those reasons may be…"

"So that I have you as my waitress."

"Oh." She looked back at the buildings, but quickly looked down at her right hand as she felt Lance's hand bump hers.

"Sorry." He noticed to.

"It's fine." It had gotten awkwardly quiet and Cora had the strongest of urges to make the 'Awkward Turtle' with her hands. "So who worked at the museum before my sister and DEW?"

"You call him that to?" He laughed; it was probably his favorite nickname even though the creator didn't really like him at the moment.

"Yea, it's like the only thing she calls him." She smiled. "So… previous co-workers?"

"Oh yea, there was Agent Booth, he used to do Agent Walker's job. There was Angela and Hodgins, you met them. Hodgin's did your sister's job. And Angela used to do artistic renditions of the victims."

"Who was the original DEW?" he grinned at the use of the name.

"Dr. Brennan. She wrote a book."

"Oh I think that's somewhere in our house. I remember packing it."

"Yea, there was this huge joke from her latest one. Pg. 187 or something…"

"What was so special about it?"

"Well, there was um."

"I don't really know how to translate this um."

"It was probably the most amazing sex scene ever."

She paused in her walking for a second; she started again shaking her head, a small smile on her lips. "So you have plenty of other books to compare that one scene to make it officially the 'Most Amazing Sex Scene Ever.'"

"Well, no its reenacting the scene, that makes it amazing."

"Oh, Wow." She chuckled. That was a little TMI.

"Shit, now I sound like a pervert."

"A little, wait who did you reenact this scene with?" With the light of the street lamps and the stores neon signs Lance could see her eyebrow raised high.

"With my fiancée."

"You're engaged. Wow, flirting with me and your getting married." She laughed again, there had not been any mention or evidence that Lance was going to be hitched any time soon.

"No at the time I was." Now it was his turn to look away.

"Oh, sorry. Um, what happened?"

"She left to go work with Dr. Brennan on this huge Anthropological Discovery in some random and far away destination in Asia or somewhere."

"Oh. That's how DEW got the job. Was it mutual or?"

"Well I didn't want to go with her."

"Understandable. What were you going to do there? Profile the natives?"

"She wanted me to become a pearl diver." He snorted at the memory of her explaining their lives on the tiny island.

"Okay." She laughed. "How they hell did she come up with that one? Monster or something?"

"She researched it."

"I need to meet her."

"She's coming back with Dr. Brennan."

"She's coming back?"

"Yea."

"DEW is going to be out of a job."

"I don't know how Cam is going to work this out."

"She…" Cora stopped when the Chorus of "My Humps" started playing at the loudest volume ever. "Sorry." They stood at the corner, Lance looked back at were the diner would be while Cora dug in her purse. "Gotcha… Yah." Her face dropped a bit.

"Oh yea. I just got done with my shift,"

"Walking home as we speak," To prove the point Cora started to blindly take steps to her side, making her way up the side walk.

"No one is with me," Both Lance and she froze.

"Don't call me a hoe. No one is with me. Shut up! Okay just tell me when you think you're going to be home?"

"Fine. I'll see you tomorrow. Love you too. Go solve a murder. Night." Clicking the end button Cora dropped the phone back into the bag and looked over at Lance. "She really does stalk me sometimes." He laughed; she really was a bit over protective of Cora.

"So which way next?"

"Oh, over there."

"Sweet."

"Sweet?" her eyebrow raised at the term being used by the young doctor.

"I haven't left my teenage years behind me."

"Let me guess you were a…." she looked both ways before she jogged across the street, "a skater wannabe."

"Nope."

"Prep."

"I was metal head."

"Holy shit!" she gave a long look at Lance before her eyes traveled in a diagonal direction above his head, as if she could see the high school image of him floating there.

"Okay, the world is officially on crack."

"Crack?"

"Sorry. I sometimes make jokes like that."

"It's fine. I do that all the time."

"From what I heard it's usually when you're standing over a dead body."

"Yea." She giggled before turning to the door putting the key into the lock.

"Um. You're going to show me the most amazing sex scene ever, Lance, I'm very intrigued by that."

"Um your sister." She did understand that her overprotective sister did have a strong dislike for him.

"Did you decide while reading it that you were going to try it out, or after?"

"That is so not your business."

"You flirted with me and walked me home. I think we're at that stage."

A look passed over Lance's face, which seemed to be a mix of a blush and a proud smile.

"Page 187 right?"

"Yea."

"Come on." She walked up the stairs to the second story where there were two doors. Heading to the right one she got another key on her chain and opened the door. Inside Cora dumped her bag on a nearby chair and bee lined it to a bookcase where she thumbed through the spines.

Watching as she started to bend down to read the lower books Lance, more or less "checked" out his co workers sister. She balanced on the balls of her feet as she finally got to the last few shelves; flexing her calve muscles and letting her skirt crawl its way up her thighs. In an unconscious manner Cora tugged at the hem of her shirt, he had seen her do that a lot since he met her. Even if her shirt was no where near the riding up point she pulled it whenever she seemed a tiny bit anxious.

"Okay, page 187." She trailed off as her eyes scanned over the page, a small blush growing on her cheeks. After reading the two following pages she started again, her voice a few pitches higher, "I could see how that would pass as the most amazing sex scene ever." She laughed and self consciously Lance joined in.

"So this Dr. Brennan must be some pretty horny lady." Bending down more quickly, which pulled her skirt up more significantly, Cora returned the book to its spot and stood again.

"Oh, god Dr. Brennan didn't come up with that. Angela helped her."

"Oh… she seems like someone who would be able to pull that together."

"Well she and Hodgins are a bit pregnant."

"Oh, I didn't see that from the large stomach and massive amount of eating, did I?"

Lance rolled his eyes, though they returned to following Cora around the room who plopped herself down onto the couch. Kicking off her shoes she stretched.

"You're making sitting very awkward for me Dr. Sweets." He smiled and followed her path over to the couch.

"So welcome to the habitat of the such and such girls." Lance trailed his eyes around the loft like room, over from the living area to a computer desk, where a PC showed the star field screen saver. None of the décor really seemed to fit Cora, but he saw it perfect for Evie.

"I don't really like it to. My room is way cooler."

"Your room?" the statement seemed to knock the wind out of him

"Yea, what did you think I slept on? Some old newspapers on the kitchen floor?" she laughed at his shocked looked. "Want to see into the mysterious life of Cora?"

"Um."

"Don't worry she isn't going to be thinking that you're humping my leg in there. She told you about that." He mouthed a 'great' as Cora started to walk towards a door down the length of the room. Standing up after her Lance stepped over her shoes and joined Cora near the doorway into what he expected to be her room.

"Here we go." Opening the door she stumbled into a somewhat dark room, it was slightly lit from street lamps from outside, her hand fumbled along the wall for the light switch and around the room three lamps came on.

It was more cluttered than the main area and what Lanced guessed was Evie room. Evie may look crazy and rebellious but her office was organized and everything was always in place.

Cora had made her way over to an industrial like shelve system where she began to fumble with putting things away.

"Are you cleaning because I'm here."

"It's just some stuff that you don't need to see." Following her over, he saw her dumping things into a jewelry box. "Impressed with my design skills?" He smiled at the sarcasm and looked at her. "Evie let me have a mattress; it's a little bit comfier than newspaper on linoleum."

"I'll test that." Lance even though he was in suit flopped down like a teenage boy onto her bed. "A little bit." He twisted around before leaning back.

"Wow." Cora laughed at him, abandoning packing whatever away she walked over to the side of the bed an amused looking all across her features.

"What?" he pouted, pushing himself up.

"You really didn't want to leave your teenage-hood behind."

"Hey come on. Lighten up." He tugged on her hand, which made her topple slightly on top of him, one part of her not so solidly on the edge of the mattress and her torso being supported by Lance. After a second of shock from the rapid movement Lance pressed his lips to hers.

Still not really sure of what was going on Cora went along with the familiar action on moving her lips along with another counterpart's. Moments after the beginning of the kiss Lance took another step by deepening the kiss, sitting up more so that Cora was becoming the one leaning against the bed.

Moving her hands up from supporting her she allowed for Lance to hover above her, their lips still not separated. They traveled up to his neck pulling him down. Taking a breath he shrugged the suit jacket off and began to move one of his hands down the curve of Cora's torso. He played with the hem of the shirt and thought that he would receive no resistance to his next action; he gently pushed the bottom up.

Giving a gasp Cora, turned her head away and a hand rushed to Lance's chest pushing him up a bit. Knowing that rejection was going to come next he shot up and began to mutter "sorry" and "shouldn't have" over and over. Like many times before she pulled her shirt down, though this time Lance caught sight a few random pale lines.

"Sorry. It's been a while."

"Yea. I was moving to fast."

"No it was me. This was the most time we've spent together and I really rushed it." He saw her hand shaking slightly and he covered it.

"Um I should go."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"What." He sputtered quickly.

"At the diner."

"Oh yea." He smiled.

Both of them adjusted themselves, Lance grabbing his jacket and Cora running her fingers through her hair stood, avoided each others eye contact. Moving in a rushed manner Lance walked to the door, Cora shuffling behind him. Opening it, he turned to look at Cora, finally making eye contact.

"Sorry."

"No. It really has been awhile, so…"

"I'll see you then."

"The diner."

"Like always." He smiled, before he stepped away Cora leaned up and gave an extended kiss to his check and what he thought was a genuine smile.

"Bye Lance."


End file.
